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Zerno Z1 grinder
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I believe those comments were referring to the Zerno
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didn't they end up covering both?Originally posted by KingTing22 View Postordered mine, cancelled the 078s. very expensive for aussie due to tax and shipping, but definitely an even cleaner setup and workthrough
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ordered mine, cancelled the 078s. very expensive for aussie due to tax and shipping, but definitely an even cleaner setup and workthrough
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Yeh, i mean everything youre saying is on point. Not sure why they went with a brushed motor? does seem odd for such a "premium" product. And youre right about the marketing of the feed rate. And, likely is too much of a pain to change and play around with in reality. Luckily for me its way out of my price range and ill have to be content with the sculptor 64s i have on order!
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TailorCoffee fair points. I do think you’re right, that variable speed may or may not be a useful feature. I think that’s something for people to consider when making a grinder selection. And to your point, it’s all about the overall final performance in any case, and we’ll see that proved over time with user experience.
My main gripe with the lack of a variable speed is less so the loss of that functionality. It’s more about the specific design choice in picking a brushed motor.
Essentially they’ve stated that they considered variable speed (and therefore brushless motor), found it didn’t do much, and used the opportunity to select a cheaper motor and for that cheaper motor to function well, they fix its speed. No big deal, many grinders are like this… but it is a cost optimisation and a quality trade off. A brushed motor has one more part to wear out.
To then emphasise in advertising that they have the ability to vary the bean feed rate, which is a technicality at best, is sneaky. They’re trying to sell people on that feature and place less emphasise in variable speed (and their cheaper motor selection). I say it’s a technicality because there’s no switch or button to control it. You literally have to pull apart your grinder and replace a part. So if you find different feed rates are useful for different methods of brewing, you’ll need to buy another burr carrier with integrated bean feed auger, and strip down and replace it every time. As the feed rate to the vertical burrs is entirely controlled by the auger, it’s actually worse for the end user - you can’t easily trickle the beans in or hold the grinder on a different angle to vary the need feed rate. It’s fixed.
To me, that’s not a feature. It’s marketing to shift people’s attention away from the places they’ve chosen to optimise cost. I appreciate the fact that they’ve optimised cost, and therefore are offering the grinder at a lower price point than say a P64… but it’s literally a case of “you get what you pay for” and the Zerno has no option for a brushless DC variable speed grinder.
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Ive experimented with feed rate into my hand grinder and it made a huge difference to how the shot pulled. I think theres an arguement that feed rate has a really big influence on particle distribution. And, Lance Hedrick has mentioned many times that variable speed is really not that important or effective.
I understand why you would think it should be on an expensive grinder since that seems to be the main differentiating factor on "high-end" grinders. But, i kinda love that Zerno didnt do it, since im sure they thought about it and whether there were benefits, in their opinion.
Either way, im looking forward to tompoland s review.
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TailorCoffee it’s possible, but by the looks of it, requires changing out the screw that feeds the beans. That seems painful to say the least, and there would be a fairly narrow range of feed rates I suspect. I’d say if the effects of variable speed of the burrs are generally not understood, then variable feed rate to vertically mounted burrs is even less understood. Seems like an entirely pointless feature.
To me, I see it as something that could be changed if they find the current feed rate is a problem. It lessens the design risk of the new grinder, nothing more.
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no variable speed, but it does have variable feed rate, which is an interesting option.
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Val is quite active on EAF Discord, seems extremely receptive to discussing new ideas etc
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Interview with one of the founders, with a breakdown of how they went about design and construction. Quite interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzcrFpD26A4
I think the issue with ordering this grinder will be after sales support, or lack of.
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interesting post thanks. amazing how the upsells add up. It looks like a seriously well thought out grinder.
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The early access presale opened to email subscribers last night but I didn't place an order. I quickly realised once you add options for different wood trim (olive and walnut costs extra $25), SSP burr (+$100), matching dosing funnel cap (+29) and the cost of shipping( $190), the prices quickly adds up to USD$1543 ~AUD$2280.. and that's not adding any import GST/fees,, which is potentially another $250~$300 on top. This price puts it in the same ball park as a Lagom P64, which has been around a lot longer and has great customer service.
That being said, as of this morning all 3rd round allocations of 250 grinders were sold out and they are cancelling the actual public presale scheduled for today.
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The stand just reminds me of a monitor stand or one of those metal mobile phone holder stands you can get on Aliexpress. Yeah the switch is well, yeah.. cheap! So the dosing cup isn't magnetic??
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Certainly killer looks. Nice range of burrs too.
The Moca SD is still my "if I had to choose only one end game grinder". Hard to go past the Ditting burrs. If only they would fit into the Zerno! Trouble is the Ditting/Mocha spin left when pretty much everything else spins right.
Currently trying to push the Mocha off its perch with a less expensive option being a DF64 ($600) with Gorilla Gear burrs ($289 landed). No reason for doing this other than curiosity ?.
Pouring some pretty awesome espresso but still need to run a blind comparison.
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